Receiver Advice

OSUdorm

Hi, I'm new to club polk so I hope I did everything correctly but I have a question about receivers. So far I haven't been able to find a thread with the same question so I decided to make my own. Here's my question, I currently have a pair of monitor 40's and a PSW505 (yes it overpowers the monitors) hooked up to an old Onkyo stereo receiver. Last night I got on eBay and found Polk Direct selling a lot of monitors so I decided to fill out my system. I will now have monitor 60's as fronts the 40's as rears a CS1 and the 505. Now I obviously need a new receiver. Now heres where my question is a bit different than most, I will be using the system for xbox, and blu rays from my roommate's alien-ware, but what I really car about is music. I would much rather have a receiver that sounds very good with music and decent for HT than the other way around. I also dont really care about all of the video and HDMI ports and upscaling and all that stuff either, I just don't need it. From what I have been able to find it sounds like the HK 254/354 is a pretty good unit, as well as some of the Onkyo's like the SR607/805. I dont know if the HK has enough power to really run my fronts, but I am not opposed to amping the fronts (with something like an old carver or Adcom although the Adcom might be overkill ). I am looking to buy the receiver probably used or refurbished on ebay some time this summer once I actually have space to set it all up (my dorm is pretty cramped right now). And I am looking to spend about $200-300 on it used. Any help is appreciated and sorry for such a long post. Oh and BTW by source will be a unibody macbook pro running optical out from itunes playing apple lossless files.

mdaudioguy

Hello OSUdorm. Welcome to Club Polk! Sounds like you're on the right track. Without looking at all the specs, I'd expect the HKs or Onkyos to do what you want. Just make sure they have pre-outs if you decide to add an amp. I'd try it without an amp first. Those speaks are fairly efficient. Good luck!

hockeyboy

Look at joining Club Onkyo for free and keep your eye out for a refurbished unit with warranty. You can shop online with a discount. Personally I don't like HK since they got acquired. You can also join audiogon as it's better than ebay in some ways.

http://clubonkyo.com/

http://www.audiogon.com/

comfortablycurt

Congrats on the new toys!! Sounds like you've got the start of a great system already!!

I've always been very pleased with the musicality of Onkyo receivers. Do you listen to music in 2 channel, or surround sound.?


Make sure you get a receiver with pre-outs. The Onkyo 805 is very nice. It has a beefier amp section than other Onk's, and has higher quality Burr Brown DAC's.

OSUdorm

Thanks for the input, but I'm just curious, whats the problem with the new HK's?

comfortablycurt

OSUdorm wrote: »

Thanks for the input, but I'm just curious, whats the problem with the new HK's?

I don't know about any specific new problems they're having...but I've never really been a fan of HK. A lot of people call their sound warm, but I call it colored. I've never really heard convincing audio playback through an HK yet. It always just seems unnatural to me.

Lots of people love their HK's, but that's my $.02



If you're really looking for musicality, something like an Adcom 545 or 555 would give you a tremendous improvement over any AVR.

OSUdorm

Oh and @ curt I will usually listen to music in 2.1 or just the fronts if I don't feel like shaking the dorm unless I find that I like how it sounds in 5.1.

OSUdorm

Sorry for all the separate posts but do you think the 60's could handle an adcom 555 its what I was looking into getting, back when I was thinking about monitor 70's.

comfortablycurt

Good to hear you like listening to music the correct way!(2 channel)

Music in surround sound drives me crazy...just doesn't seem right to me.


The 60's will easily be able to handle an Adcom 555. The Adcom will also open them up MUCH more than any AVR would ever be able to. The wattage ratings of most AVR's is kind of unrealistic. Most AVR's are only really putting out about half of their rated wattage.


Also...remember this.

There really is no such thing as speakers not being able to handle an amp. If anything, you have to worry about an amp being able to handle the speakers.

You're much more likely to damage speakers by underpowering them, than overpowering them. The 60's would love the current from the 555.

OSUdorm

Thanks for all the help, one last question,do you know if there is really any difference between the different years of the adcoms because I am reading different stuff from different sources (I would be getting a used old one).

comfortablycurt

OSUdorm wrote: »

Thanks for all the help, one last question,do you know if there is really any difference between the different years of the adcoms because I am reading different stuff from different sources (I would be getting a used old one).

Yes, there are several differences...here's a thread with more info on that topic...

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53981


Generally, people seem to prefer the older ones, but there are plenty of happy users of the newer ones as well.